Hard times
by Silverwavesparkling
Summary: These stories give you a little peek into the early life of Pietro and Wanda after their adoptive parents died.
1. Home is at your side

AN: These are Evolution stories, because I picture them like in Evolution and many things we see in Evo would later happen to them (Wanda getting send to the asylum for example), but you find also comic sources (like living on the streets for some time) and my own ideas (making them a lot younger when they lived on the streets).

And again, no native English speaker here. If you find mistakes, you can keep them. ;) ... or tell me, so I can learn.

**Home is at your side  
**

Wanda cautiously stuck her head out of the manhole. Everything seemed quiet, so the young girl climbed out. Her stomach growled loudly and she pressed a hand on it in agony. "Can you see Pietro yet, Julika?" the seven year old whispered to a rag doll in her other hand. "I hope nothing bad has happened to him."

"Well..." she continued to babble to her doll "... let´s see if we can find something to make our bed more comfy, shall we? But be very quiet Julika. We don´t want someone to notice us, do we?"

Wanda hurried along through some back alleys, searching the containers there, that were filled with everything people didn´t need any more for something she and her twin-brother may still need.

After a while she had collected an armful of cardboard and to her joy, she had also found a piece of cloth, that probably had once been a curtain.

Quickly she ran back to the manhole, opened it with some difficulty and threw all her findings into the darkness below before she climbed down after it into the sewers.

Humming a happy melody Wanda started to clean old, wet cardboard of the wooden plank that was the twin´s bed and put the new one on it. "The curtain will be a nice blanket", she decided and folded it up nicely for later use.

All her work done, Wanda sat down and waited. How long was Pietro gone now? Two hours? The girl was really worried by now. What if the police had caught him? Pietro was good at stealing food at the market place, but their always was a risk. And it was not only the police that was dangerous. There were many bad people out there, who would beat up a young gypsy boy or even rape him, just because. And there were the other street children, many bigger and stronger than Pietro, who would not hesitate to take whatever her brother had stolen away from him with violence.

However the last time she went in search of him and under people, said people had called her bad names. ""Rag rat", a man had said. And "dirty gypsy-trash" had been the words that came out of the mouth of a woman, who was selling vegetables. In Wanda´s hurt she had accidently set the market stall on fire and Pietro had to come to save her, losing all the food he had managed to get his hands on so far.

The girl sat down on the freshly made "bed" with a sigh and twiddled her thumps. She would give Pietro some more time, before going out looking for him.

Wanda sat up with a start and looked around drowsily, when she heard a scratching sound that indicated that the manhole cover was being opened. "Oh silly girl, she berated herself, how could you have fallen asleep?! "

She walked the few steps through the small tunnel quickly, till she could stand up fully and stared up the ladder which led to the streets above.

"Wanda? Wanda?" she heard someone call down. "Are you there?"

Relief flooded her, when she recognized the voice as Pietro´s.

"Yes, right here. Come on down, Piet. You have been gone for hours. Are you ok?"

A young boy, wearing a big smile on his face, climbed down and hugged his sister. "Of course I am fine, Wanda. I would not let myself be caught now, would I? Oh no, not me. I´d never leave you alone. Are you hungry?"

"I am. But Pietro are you really ok?"

The boy laughed and Wanda, knowing her brother very well, noticed something off about him. "I am perfect! What do you want? I have some bread and cheese and apples and an orange and even some ham!"

Wanda pursed her lips angrily. "Sounds all great, but Pietro you promised you would not do it again."

"Oh Wanda, don´t be so! It was just a little!"

"So you not even deny it, do you? Piet, it just is not healthy to inhale those fumes, you know that. Papa always said..."

"Yes, yes, yes, I know! I will not do it again. Really! Promise! Now can we eat?" he said, sounding irritated.

... "Ok. I´d like some bread and ham, please."

Pietro rummaged through a small dirty bag and fished out the required food. "Here you go." He handed some bread and a piece of ham to his sister, who devoured it hungrily.

"Aren´t you having something?" she asked her twin with her mouth full. The boy stared down at the food and shook his head. "Nah, not feeling very hungry all of a sudden." He lay down on their new made bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

Wanda eyed the sleeping form of her brother worriedly. With a sigh she took the new "blanket" and tugged it around him. "Sleep well" she murmured into his ear and kissed him softly on his cheek.

The End


	2. A little favour

AN: Warning: In this story child abuse is mentioned. It is not written graphic, but still, don´t read it, if this topic upsets you too much!

A little favour

The winter had been very long and very cold. Snow had fallen endlessly from the cloudy sky and had covered up everything under a thick and deathly blanket.

Pietro and Wanda had to flee there "save home" in the sewers to survive, but had been lucky to find a spot in an old, but working boiler room. Of course a living place like that was hard to come by and fought over a lot, but the twins had their ways.

For one, there was the rumor that Wanda was bad luck, so most kept away from her.

And the second reason was that Pietro, who hang out with a group of other children sometimes to do, what he had promised Wanda not to do, had hit a soft spot in the heart of said children´s leader, a fourteen year old girl, named Mela.

Mela had taken a liking to Pietro, because he reminded her of her little brother, who had died two winters before. She had, for a youth living on the streets, quite a good income and with the money she earned she bought food for the younger children under her "care" and Toluol*. She also granted Pietro some Toluol now and then, knowing that the young boy did not have the resources to buy much if anything for himself and not wanting him to earn money the way she did.

The teenager had quite the reputation too and was feared even by most of the older boys. She had used her power to secure that nice little spot in the boiler room for her young friend. And with Wanda moving in as well, no one was brave enough to chase them away again.

Everything was fine, in the twin´s opinion. They had each other. They had a warm sleeping place. They had, with all the snow around, enough relatively clean water to drink and Pietro managed nearly every day to find or steal them a bite to eat.

Yes, everything was fine, until the 24th of February. This was the day that Wanda woke up sick with a high fever and a bad cough.

Pietro was only seven years old, but he knew, that he had to do something. So he searched through his pockets for the single coin that a nice, old lady had given him a few days ago.

He had wanted to save the coin to buy Wanda a scarf, but now it was more important to buy medicine.

"I am back soon," he whispered into her ear and left for the pharmacy.

The doorbell chimed when he opened the door and stepped into the warm room. A man looked up smiling, but his smile vanished instantly when he saw, who came there wandering into his shop.

"Get out of here, rag rat!" he called. But Pietro was not intimidated.

"I have money!" the boy said. "I want to buy something."

The adult grumbled. "Come over here then. What do you want?"

"Medicine..."

The man raised an eyebrow. "Want to get high on it, do you, you dirty drug addict. Now listen to me, I do not ..."

"No!" Pietro interrupted. "It´s for my sister. She is sick!"

"Is that so?" the man asked, mistrust clearly in his voice. "Well, what are her symptoms?"

"She has a fever and a bad cough," explained Pietro and stood up on tiptoes to put his coin down on the shop counter.

The man stared down at the coin and laughed. "Is this all you got, boy? Get out of here this instant! You keep away the paying folks!"

"But I am paying!" Pietro felt his eyes welt up with tears. "The money´s right in front of you!"

"With this you cannot buy medicine, stupid! It´s not enough! You need paper money! Now...get out of here, before I call the police!"

With a hanging head Pietro left the pharmacy and sat down in the snow on the side of the street.

He sat there for quite some time thinking about ways to get paper-money, when a car stopped next to him.

The boy looked up in fear and just made to run, when a friendly voice spoke. "Don´t be afraid, little one. What are you doing here in the cold, all alone?"

Pietro didn´t answer and just stared at the expensively dressed man who was sitting in the big, black car.

"Are you hungry?" asked he and the boy nodded.

The man leaned out the window, opened up a paper bag and pulled out a piece of chocolate cake. "Here you go", he said and Pietro stuffed the cake into his mouth hungrily.

"Do you want some more?" the man asked and Pietro again nodded.

"Why don´t you come with me then? You can have more cake and warm yourself a little? Hm? What do you say? A warm shower maybe?" The man smiled at him, but Pietro shook his head no.

He turned to leave, when the man called out again: "Wait, little one, not so fast! I´ll pay you some money too!"

This spiked Pietro´s interest. "Paper-money?" he asked cautiously and the man nodded. "And you just have to do me a little favour. What do you say?"

The young gypsy agreed and climbed into the passenger seat. They drove for quite some time and the man chatted nicely with him and even gave him the paper bag that had more chocolate cake in it.

Soon however they stopped in front of a cheap looking hotel.

A fat man behind the counter looked at the boy knowingly. "The usual room I suppose?" he asked and handed the man a key.

The room they entered was nice.. Nothing fancy of course, but it had curtains and a carpet and a real bed.

The man led Pietro into an adjoining room that held a toilet and a shower.

"Let´s get you cleaned up, shall we little one?"

The boy stayed silent and didn´t move.

"I´ll help you," the man purred into his little visitor´s ear and undressed him.

Pietro was trembling and shook even more, when the man placed him into the shower and began washing him.

"What unusual hair!" exclaimed he, when he had rinsed all the dirt and grime out and it´s silvery-white color became visible. "Unusual, but beautiful," he said with a smile and stroke over Pietro´s head.

"We will have a lot fun together. You really are a pretty boy!" he whispered into his ear and kissed his back.

A few hours later Pietro ran back to the pharmacy, paper-money in his hand and finally got the much needed medicine that would safe his sister´s life.

The End

*Toluol is a solvent that many street children use to get high and forget about their troubles, the hunger and the cold. It gets breathed in through mouth/nose. It´s cheap, easy to buy (not illegal) and easy to use, but it is very harmful for the body (especially the lever, kidneys and brain) and can kill the children.


End file.
